Single digits

In just over one week from now I will be boarding a plane from almost the very bottom of the world to pretty close to the top. You couldn't really get a whole lot further away from daily life by doing this, yet funnily enough the focus will still be on daily life.

There are old friends to see in the UK and familiar places from when we lived there and when we were there five years ago. There is absolute comfort in this familiarity and gratefulness to the friendships that have been maintained across the world for over 20 years.

But this trip will also be about new experiences. Life doesn't stand still and there has been much change and loss in my life over the past few years, so even though the postcard scenery may look the same, perhaps the lens from which I view them now is very different.

Speaking of lenses, I bought a new camera last week for the trip. I have been off and done a course in how to use it and I am really looking forward to throwing myself into some cool photography. Those who know me well would know this is something I love to do, but in recent years it has remained a bit absent. My default style is to take close up shots of objects and not scenery or people. I generally find landscapes boring and portraits intrusive but they don't have to be.

I am going to throw caution to the wind and try to capture Mother Nature working her magic and even some human spirit shots, and hey who knows, I may actually come out from behind the camera once or twice too, just to prove I really was there.Read more